“She called me scared to death,” said Barry, 39. “She said, ‘I heard gunshots and then sirens and then more gunshots.’”

Their baby was sleeping in the next room, down for an afternoon nap, Barry said, when the last leg of a police pursuit shattered the peaceful afternoon of a normally quiet East Bridgewater neighborhood.

State police detectives later cordoned off a section of the Barry’s yard as authorities continued to canvas the area of Thatcher and Summer streets for much of the afternoon to look for shell casings and other evidence.

It all started when a man later identified as 47-year-old Jeffrey P. Watts of Brockton walked into the CVS on Centre and Cary streets in Brockton carrying a shotgun at his side, and demanding opiates.

That’s what witness accounts detailed, and what Brockton Police Chief Emanuel Gomes later confirmed happened. The gunman then fled from police in a pursuit that ripped through Brockton, Whitman and into East Bridgewater, Gomes said.

It ended about 12:20 p.m., with Watts shot and then taken to a Brockton hospital where he later died.

Anne Marie Crook was just about to take her granddaughter Brynn outside for a walk when she heard the gunfire.

“It did sound, like everyone says, like fireworks at first,” Crook said.

Then she watched as four cruisers came “roaring” down Summer Street, followed by another 20 or so, she estimated, from every direction.

The chase ended on Thatcher Street in East Bridgewater, steps from the front entrance to Massassoit Community College in Brockton.

The college sent an alert out to students at about 12:55 p.m. that read: “MCC alert! There was a police matter on Thatcher Street. The subject was contained. There was no college threat. Traffic diverted to Crescent Street.”

In Whitman, a portion of Auburn Street was also blocked off for much of the day, slowing traffic to a near halt for hours as police continued their investigation.

Ryan Dillon, a construction worker who was at a job site on the Whitman side of Route 14, said he heard the sirens and multiple gunshots and watched the black Dodge pickup truck speed past, pursued, he said, by about a dozen police cars. More cruisers followed.

A few hundred yards away, Arianna Robbins, who was working at the back window of the drive-thru of a Wendy’s restaurant at the intersection of Auburn (Route 14) and Bedford (Route 18) streets, said she too heard shots fired as about a dozen cruisers sped past.

The main crime scene off Thatcher Street remained blocked off Monday afternoon, closed to both through-traffic and a barrage of media that was herded to the intersection of Summer and Thatcher streets, out of sight of the hot zone.

Page 2 of 2 - Many questions were left unanswered Monday night as authorities continued their investigation.

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, who is handling the investigation, declined to comment on whether any other suspects were involved and would not identify the suspect or confirm if any law enforcement officials had been shot during the pursuit.

He did say there was no further danger to the public, as of Monday afternoon.

The Plymouth County district attorney’s office, according to a press release, forwarded the investigation to the Cape and Islands to avoid any conflict of interest after a state police detective assigned to Plymouth County was involved in the gunfire exchange.

“Why, why,” said Crook, of East Bridgewater, her 1-year-old granddaughter safe and smiling in her arms. “I don’t understand people.”